Smith: Here's to the last Doolittle Raiders reunion

November 9, 2013, 6:24PM

11/09/2013

Marian Campbell Mapes loved and revered her late uncle, Clayton Campbell. He was one of the 80 aviators who throttled up bombers on an aircraft carrier in April of 1942 and took off on one of history's most audacious airborne missions.

Mapes, who lives in Santa Rosa, is in Ohio this weekend for an historic moment: the final toast of the surviving Doolittle Tokyo Raiders.

Just four of the airmen whose strike at Imperial Japan rallied Americans' hopes in the dark months following the attack on Pearl Harbor are still alive.

One, Robert L. Hite, who was captured by the Japanese and imprisoned for 40 months, is unable to travel.

The other three — Richard E. Cole, Edward J. Saylor and David J. Thatcher — met Saturday near Dayton, Ohio, to repeat — for the last time — their annual rite of toasting with silver goblets all of their fellow Raiders who have passed on.

The plan has long been that the last two Raiders would open and drink from a bottle of Hennessy Cognac dated 1896, the year that leader James H. "Jimmy" Doolittle was born.

But the four survivors agreed that 71 years after the raid, they're so old that this year's toast will be the last.

Marian Mapes went to witness the opening of the bottle and the closing of a potent chapter in U.S. history — and to remember her uncle.

Clayton Campbell, a navigator on one of the raid's 16 B-25s, was 85 when he died in 2002 in Washington State.

Mapes wrote in an email from Ohio before the reunion of the three Raiders, "The atmosphere is one of great pride juxtaposed with great humility.

"Twenty-five of the original 80 Raider families have at least one family member present, along with many special friends and very significant public and private-sector benefactors."

I'd so hoped that Santa Rosa's Frank Kappeler, who'd navigated another of the bombers, would make it to the final toast. But Frank, a rare gentleman, died three years ago at age 96.

Here's to all the Doolittle Raiders.

AT SNOOPY'S HOME ICE the other day, a Japanese woman who's 60 smiled and waved like a kid as arena manager Kevin McCool treated her to a VIP ride on the Zamboni.

McCool had learned that Hiroko Ikeda traveled alone from Fukuoka-Shi seeking to fulfill a dream involving her two leading passions in life.

"I love Snoopy and figure skating," she said in English worlds better than my Japanese.

Relatives helped her pay for a birthday trip to America — her first one — to skate at the arena built by late "Peanuts" creator Charles Schulz.

I met her in the midst of a Coffee Club group skate lesson. "She's a natural," instructor Judy Levesque said.

Before her triumphant Zamboni ride, Hiroko showed me the Japanese-language paperback book of Peanuts cartoons she has treasured since high school. Schulz's characters — especially Snoopy — are hugely popular in Japan.

Hiroko said that skating in Snoopy's arena is even better than she imagined because the staff and the skaters are like a family.

And look here. Now she's now part of it.

CHRISTMAS IS COMING and it's probably not too early to mention that there will be an important change this year to the Schulz arena's popular Holiday Tree Lighting and Skating Exhibition.

The pre-Christmas family event has grown too large for the arena to safely accommodate it. So this year, anyone interested in attending much arrange ahead of time to obtain a free ticket.

The arena's general manager, Justin Higgs, said tickets will be available after 10 a.m. at Snoopy's Gallery & Gift Shop on Nov. 20. Any tickets still remaining at the end of that day will be distributed from the ice arena box office.

The limit is four per person.

The tree lighting and skating display happens Dec. 6. For many of us, it's a fond reminder of the delightful, star-graced ice shows that, thanks to Sparky Schulz, were simply essential to the holidays in Sonoma County.

Marian Campbell Mapes loved and revered her late uncle, Clayton Campbell. He was one of the 80 aviators who throttled up bombers on an aircraft carrier in April of 1942 and took off on one of history's most audacious airborne missions.

Mapes, who lives in Santa Rosa, is in Ohio this weekend for an historic moment: the final toast of the surviving Doolittle Tokyo Raiders.

Just four of the airmen whose strike at Imperial Japan rallied Americans' hopes in the dark months following the attack on Pearl Harbor are still alive.

One, Robert L. Hite, who was captured by the Japanese and imprisoned for 40 months, is unable to travel.

The other three — Richard E. Cole, Edward J. Saylor and David J. Thatcher — met Saturday near Dayton, Ohio, to repeat — for the last time — their annual rite of toasting with silver goblets all of their fellow Raiders who have passed on.

The plan has long been that the last two Raiders would open and drink from a bottle of Hennessy Cognac dated 1896, the year that leader James H. "Jimmy" Doolittle was born.

But the four survivors agreed that 71 years after the raid, they're so old that this year's toast will be the last.

Marian Mapes went to witness the opening of the bottle and the closing of a potent chapter in U.S. history — and to remember her uncle.

Clayton Campbell, a navigator on one of the raid's 16 B-25s, was 85 when he died in 2002 in Washington State.

Mapes wrote in an email from Ohio before the reunion of the three Raiders, "The atmosphere is one of great pride juxtaposed with great humility.

"Twenty-five of the original 80 Raider families have at least one family member present, along with many special friends and very significant public and private-sector benefactors."

I'd so hoped that Santa Rosa's Frank Kappeler, who'd navigated another of the bombers, would make it to the final toast. But Frank, a rare gentleman, died three years ago at age 96.

Here's to all the Doolittle Raiders.

AT SNOOPY'S HOME ICE the other day, a Japanese woman who's 60 smiled and waved like a kid as arena manager Kevin McCool treated her to a VIP ride on the Zamboni.

McCool had learned that Hiroko Ikeda traveled alone from Fukuoka-Shi seeking to fulfill a dream involving her two leading passions in life.

"I love Snoopy and figure skating," she said in English worlds better than my Japanese.

Relatives helped her pay for a birthday trip to America — her first one — to skate at the arena built by late "Peanuts" creator Charles Schulz.

I met her in the midst of a Coffee Club group skate lesson. "She's a natural," instructor Judy Levesque said.

Before her triumphant Zamboni ride, Hiroko showed me the Japanese-language paperback book of Peanuts cartoons she has treasured since high school. Schulz's characters — especially Snoopy — are hugely popular in Japan.

Hiroko said that skating in Snoopy's arena is even better than she imagined because the staff and the skaters are like a family.

And look here. Now she's now part of it.

CHRISTMAS IS COMING and it's probably not too early to mention that there will be an important change this year to the Schulz arena's popular Holiday Tree Lighting and Skating Exhibition.

The pre-Christmas family event has grown too large for the arena to safely accommodate it. So this year, anyone interested in attending much arrange ahead of time to obtain a free ticket.

The arena's general manager, Justin Higgs, said tickets will be available after 10 a.m. at Snoopy's Gallery & Gift Shop on Nov. 20. Any tickets still remaining at the end of that day will be distributed from the ice arena box office.

The limit is four per person.

The tree lighting and skating display happens Dec. 6. For many of us, it's a fond reminder of the delightful, star-graced ice shows that, thanks to Sparky Schulz, were simply essential to the holidays in Sonoma County.